The news claims piles of trash and illegal off-roading at Joshua Tree. Also, tourists are supposedly pooping beside the road in Yosemite. However, I have not seen pictures or other actual evidence. No one is saying if it is confined to a particular area or widespread. It's all vague right now.

This morning's L.A. Times has a story. Joshua Tree had a large influx of New Year's partiers who left piles of trash. Volunteers are overwhelmed trying to haul it out. No one is pumping out the vault toilets. So, the campgrounds are closed. JT is now open for day use only. Xanterra is cleaning and stocking the restrooms at some of the popular DV sites, but are they also pumping out the toilet tanks? If not, then they will have to close sooner or later.

This morning's L.A. Times has a story. Joshua Tree had a large influx of New Year's partiers who left piles of trash. Volunteers are overwhelmed trying to haul it out. No one is pumping out the vault toilets. So, the campgrounds are closed. JT is now open for day use only. Xanterra is cleaning and stocking the restrooms at some of the popular DV sites, but are they also pumping out the toilet tanks? If not, then they will have to close sooner or later.

Just an update on my trip. I spent several nights at eureka dunes and lee flats between 12/26 and 1/2. The restroom at eureka dunes was in bad shape, not sure if the thing was ever pumped out. I could not tell that the park was closed. I did not go into death valley so I don't know what that is like.

Joshua Tree is closing completely tomorrow. Now it is used a lot more than Death Valley. We were there this time last year and figured you could compare visitation by the number of vault toilets at each park - many more in Joshua Tree. The park was open despite that government shutdown, and indeed we met people hiking with their dogs.

But while the Los Angeles Times initially reported the park would likely remain closed for the duration of the shutdown, officials have since walked that back and are now saying they expect it to reopen by the end of the week—and they say it may not actually close at all, depending on how quickly cleanup takes place./quote]

The longer this stretches on the more I wish that they'd just shut the Parks down completely and focus on making sure everything stays undamaged. Relying on volunteers to clean up after Park visitors that can't be bothered to take care of their own sh!t (literally) isn't reasonable. The backlog of wear and tear clean up when the shutdown does end is going to be a total PITA. I don't think that's a fair burden to put on the fine employees of the National Park Service who already get questionable support from our government.

I have a friend who works for the park service at the Grand Canyon. His job is fully funded through the shut down since his job is considered essential. However, interestingly, he told me that the state of AZ keeps the park open through the duration of shut downs because it makes a big difference to their economy if the park is closed. I don't know if they fully fund everything, but it makes a lot of sense that they would see an advantage to keep that park open. Probably DVNP and JTNP don't have that kind of economic impact on CA, but it's funny how much more proactive AZ is than CA on this issue... not that CA is run by a bunch of morons or anything...

We've been in DVNP for the past five days, staying at the Stovepipe Wells RV park. When we first came in, Sunset CG and Texas Spring CG were open and the vistor's enter was operating under a donation from the Death Valley Natural History Association. Since then things have slowly been getting closed. All of the NPS CGs have now been closed, except Stove Pipe Wells which is being maintained by the concessionaire. In the last couple of days Mustard Canyon and Harmony Borax Works have been closed. Yesterday they closed the Mesquite Dunes parking lot. Yesterday Titus was still open, so we did that run, but it would not surprise me if it gets closed soon. The visitor center funding was only up until today, so I don't know if that will stay open. All of the private and concession run facilities are still operating. We plan on running over to PSR today for lunch.

The dirt roads can be closed because they belong to the Park Service. The paved roads cannot be closed because they are state roads. They were not closed during any of the previous shutdowns. Does anybody really think that current government of California will close state roads?

The dirt roads can be closed because they belong to the Park Service. The paved roads cannot be closed because they are state roads. They were not closed during any of the previous shutdowns. Does anybody really think that current government of California will close state roads?

Aren't even some of the dirt roads maintained by the state, such as Saline Valley Rd?